Review: Street Fighter X Tekken

Street Fighter X Tekken is the latest crossover fighter made from the talented designers over at Capcom. Ever since Capcom released Street Fighter II, I was madly in love. I don’t consider myself a hardcore professional player like the guys you’d see play at the Evolution tournaments, but I can hold my ground when playing any of Capcom’s fighting games.

This time around Capcom decided to team up with Tekken. I think it would be safe to say that a lot of people saw this coming a long time ago, but alas, it’s finally here and I got to check out Street Fighter X Tekken.

If you’ve played any game from the Street Fighter IV series, the menu format is very familiar and easy to navigate through with the obvious art of various characters taking over much of the screen.

Speaking of characters, fighting games are all about controls. If the controls don’t work for a character, you pretty much have a broken game on your hands. However, this is Capcom we’re talking about and, for the Street Fighter character side of the game, it’s definitely spot on; from Ryu’s Hadouken to Hugo’s Gigas Breaker, the moves are extremely fluid and work just how you’d be able to control them in any other game they’ve been in.

The roster of characters for the game is really good as well; 38 characters is a lot and it gives a great variety of play styles and it’s your job to find the perfect matchup. There are 12 more planned DLC characters on the way for the Playstation Vita version of the game due this summer.

Remember, this is a Capcom game so there is sure to be different versions of the final product. There are a few things that may tick some people off. On the Xbox 360 version you can’t fight on teams with a friend online. You’re going to have to fly it solo for this one as Capcom decided to leave that support out. However, in the Ps3 version, you can have a friend and go all out online which is great if you like playing fighters with other people that you know. The PS3 version also boasts an extra five exclusive characters that include Cole from Infamous, Toro and Kuro from Sony Japan, Pacman, and even Megaman. Well… not the one you’d expect, but he’s in there.

Controlling a character is ridiculously easy as well with the inclusion of three different types of inputs for character move sets – normal, easy and super easy, which can allow even the most terrible player the chance to perform really spectacular combos. I’m assuming that the reason this was implemented was so that players who are new to fighting games can all be on the same playing field. This is fair until someone who knows the game inside and out will be able to do the same.

I admit I’m not much of a Tekken fan. I’ve played enough of their games to understand a few of the character moves, but the controls for the characters were actually easier for me to use as well as execute for some reason. When I played against the computer I was actually able to do a proper combo without knowing what moves certain characters possessed while using characters I wasn’t familiar with.

The detail of visuals of the game kept the same 2.5D that Capcom has been using since Street Fighter IV came out back in 2009 and I have to say that not only does it make the characters pop, but it makes outstanding background detail for all of the fighting stages. Muscles and breasts from both generations of fighters are well defined and you could tell that Capcom has put in time to make them very visible.

For the gameplay it’s like most other fighters – Knock out the other player before they do the same to you or before the time runs out. Simple enough, but nothing is ever too simple with Capcom.

Another twist to the gameplay is Pandora mode, which gives you only 10 seconds to beat down your opponent. In exchange, you have unlimited EX meter and you better finish off your rival in that amount of time because, if you don’t, you’ll automatically lose the match. Some may call it something similar to the X- Factor mechanic that’s used in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

In addition to Pandora mode, they’ve implemented a Gem system to power up your character, allowing them to make impressive combos as well as do crossover counters with your second character if you’re playing on a team.

There are six different gems in total that allow you to power up your character: attack, defense, speed, cross gauge, vitality, and assist.

There are several kinds of gems in Street Fighter X Tekken. For example, a boost gem will increase a character’s attributes during battle, a red gem will increase attack power, yellow increases defense, and the green increases speed. The gems can also be used when you call an assist while you’re playing on teams, allowing for a long combo that does impressive damage.

Capcom has added a few extra features this time around in the online mode which now includes a practice mode so you can hone your skills. You can also use the replay mode that allows you to filter out what you want to watch by character which can be a big deal if you’re looking to perfect a characters combo.

I’ve always been a Capcom fan because every game they release. They implement some features that are so crazy and, no matter how broken it may be, it’s a lot of fun to play with friends. With so many play styles to choose from, it won’t be much of a big deal between versions because Capcom has a weird way of keeping their fans satisfied.